Imagine you show up to the golf course and you get paired with someone to play with. You shake hands, exchange pleasantries, and stand there awkwardly waiting for him to go to his car and get his clubs. You noticed he was holding a five iron in his hand, and you finally asked if he needed to go get the rest of his clubs. “Don’t need ‘em” he responds. “I hate lugging around that bag so I developed my game to where I can do everything with this one club.” He rotated the club to hit the ball differently when needed. He adjusted his approach to driving the ball off the tee. He bent his elbows and knees just right to get the lift on the ball he needed at the right times. Sure enough, he managed a full 18 holes with only a five iron. Luckily for you, you can now brag about how badly you beat this golfer.

This golfer’s focus was on keeping things simple and not carrying around a heavy bag. But was his effective? He managed to get to the hole every time, but it often cost him a few extra strokes. I’m not much of a golfer myself but I understand enough of the game that those who do golf are likely frustrated by the guy in this analogy.

What is the Gospel? This question is essential. It should shape how we live, how we view others, how we worship, our relationship to the world, opposition, how we live together as followers of Christ, etc. How you understand the gospel shapes everything about you. So, how do you understand the gospel?

When asked to explain the gospel, most often we hear the same basic response, “You’re a sinner and deserve death but Jesus died for you so now you don’t have to.” Or, with more legal language, “The penalty of sin is death, but Christ paid the ransom for your sins through his death so that you might live.” This basic presentation of the gospel has often become the five-iron of our golf game. This metaphor for explaining the gospel will often get us where we need to go but it isn’t always the most effective club we should be reaching for. As we look to the new terrain ahead of us, we need to look into the golf bag of “Atonement theory,” the way of talking about the gospel, and see what clubs need to be dusted off and utilized for the strokes we need to take.

When “penal substitution,” the atonement theory detailed above, becomes the only club we use, we must convince every person they are a sinner deserving of death so that we can then convince them they need Jesus. While this is a very real part of what Jesus did on the cross, it misses so many other parts of the gospel that would be a better starting point for sharing Jesus with a culture that does not feel guilt for their way of life and sees Christians as hypocrites when we focus on their sins while ignoring our own.

If the gospel is “good news” for all people in all times and in all places, should the church always take the same approach to presenting the gospel in all times and in all places? Or, should we evaluate the place we’re in and see where the gospel encounters people in these times and places? When Paul is in front of the synagogue, he reasons from scripture. When he’s in front of the philosophers on Mars Hill in Acts 17, he reasons from their own poets and meets them where they are in their religious practices to speak of who God is. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul says, “19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

This is an incarnational approach to ministry. The incarnation is where God meets us where we are in Jesus, becoming like us so that we can become like him. Paul’s approach to sharing the gospel was to meet everyone where they were in their time and place to walk with them towards Jesus. Philippians 2:1-11 is a great picture of what Jesus did for us to then show us what we do for one another and for the world.

When I think about the community around us in the YMCA and in our neighborhood, I wrestle with how the Gospel meets each person where they are and how it is received as good news. How is the gospel good news for these groups (and how do we meet them where they are): rich, poor, good natured, LGBTQ+, immigrant, women, men, marginalized, oppressed, Black Lives Matter, Democrats, Republicans, de-churched, etc.
If God’s mission for the church is reconciliation of all creation back to him, then the church needs to reflect this reconciliation in all her practices. Is there anything we do as a church that creates a barrier between for people coming to know Christ? Is there anything in your life and convictions that create a barrier for people coming to know Christ? If we are to be a church on mission to take the gospel into all the world, we need to look deep into our golf bag, know the gospel in its fullness so we are always prepared to give an answer for the hope we have. We need to know the gospel so well that it shapes how we work together as a church, how we present ourselves to the world, and how we approach conversations with the world around us.

NODA Church